Chief officer Rob Prow with some of last year’s seizures. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 0891380)
A WAR on drug barons has brought a dramatic fall in the amount of Class A substances entering the island.
Launching the Customs and Immigration Service annual report yesterday, chief officer Rob Prow revealed that trafficking in the Bailiwick had ‘significantly dropped’ and that the controlled drug market was now noticeably down on recent years thanks to a targeted approach.
He put this down to the island’s successful law enforcement and robust sentencing policy: ‘This has significantly displaced and disrupted some of the principal organised crime groups that have traditionally been responsible for maintaining a regular supply of drugs into the Bailiwick.
‘We have made a serious impact into these syndicates and those we are dispersing now are importing Class A drugs, whereas previously it was Class B drugs such as cannabis,’ said Mr Prow.
In 2008, 15 people were indicted before the Royal Court, with eight being convicted, and a further 33 successfully prosecuted in the Magistrate’s Court.
The service has worked closely with the police to investigate the finances behind such groups. ‘We look into these syndicates from root to branch,’ he said.
Mr Prow said the service also worked closely with counterparts in the UK and further afield. ‘Cross-border crime including drug trafficking and financial crime and border control enforcement requires international effort and cannot be successfully tackled in isolation.’
But he said that both traffickers and organised criminals who were involved in cross-border crime were becoming more sophisticated.
‘There are many demands on the service in every area and, year on year, these are increasing. With financial constraints in the public sector the challenge for me is continuing to deliver the service that we feel is vital to the island,’ he said.
* Copies of the report are available from Sir Charles Frossard House or the Greffe from today or can be viewed online at www.gov.gg/customs.
Article posted on 18th December, 2009 - 2.30pm
18 Article Comments
‘He put this down to the island’s successful law enforcement and robust sentencing policy’
that, or the wide availability of ‘legal’ alternatives, eh Mr Prow?
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Well done Rob.
Keep up the good work.
These scum deserve long sentencing indeed!
Have a good Christmas.
Regards
Daz
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Dean, you compare legal highs to Class A. Are you saying legal highs should be categorised into Class A?
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No, I’m clearly not saying that!
I’m saying that due to the wide availability ‘legal alternatives’ there is less demand for certain illegal drugs, meaning less coming into the island, and less ‘busts’.
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@Dean well said mate !!!!! because there was the legal alternative to the harder class A drugs people were not importing or purcasing the ‘bad stuff’This is so obviously true as the prison population went down …..
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Don’t take it seriously, I was trying to be ironic!!
I don’t believe a person who is addicted to most Class A drugs would see legal highs as being a suitable alternative! The exception being, possibly, Cocaine users as this is generally not physically addictive (not talking about Crack here btw) and is more of a recreational drug – much like Legal Highs are. It would be useful if Rob Prow could be a little more specific than just to refer to ‘Class A’ – as the drugs classified as such vary significantly in their affect, and usage demographic.
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Truth Man
Ecstasy and LSD are both class A, both of which have numerous “legal high” imposters.
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Phil
Agreed, again it would be useful to know what drugs Rob Prow is referring to. I’m still not totally convinced we could suggest (without some supporting evidence) that the availability of legal highs kept Class A use down…
Rob Prow talks about the current figures being down on recent years. Legal Highs have been available for quite some time, therefore, if the suggestion Dean makes is true then why is it we are only seeing results now? Surely we’d have seen results some years ago?
There are too many question marks over this one to come to the conclusion that Legal Highs play any role in keeping Class A use down – for that reason I will resist the urge to be an armchair expert on the issue. More facts please Rob Prow!
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Truth Man, there is no doubt the explosion of legal high use (and i’m talking mainly about the powders containing 3-FMC and 4-MMC) have resulted in a drop in class A useage, replacing ecstacy/MDMA and cocaine.
It is true 3-FMC and 4-MMC have been around for a while, but this year has also seen a major drop in the qaulity of MDMA and cocaine in the UK and Europe, which resulted in a shift to their legal alternatives. This is further magnified in Guernsey, because why take the risk importing rubbish pills or very low quality coke if you can buy better stuff legally?
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Truthman
In my opinion it is definately the availability of “Legal High” pills and powders that kept the Class A drugs down, as many people prefered to not break the law and risk imprisonment.
For Rob Prow on behalf of Customs try to take credit for the decline of Class A drugs is laughable.
Also “Legal Highs” in the context that we are discussing have not been available for “quite sometime”, that is why you have not seen the results “some time ago”.
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Truthman
I agree with you that it would be useful if Rob Prow could be more specific on the term “Class A’s”.
But:
It would be useful if you could be more specific than just refering to “Legal Highs”
This is a broad spectrum term for rather a lot of things.
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@ Nat & Anon
Nat :
I’m sorry, but there is significant doubt that the “explosion of legal high use … has resulted in a drop in class A useage”, and you provide no evidence at all in support of your claim. You state a valid opinion, but unless there is some supporting data that I am unaware of (if so, please share it!), that is all your post is: your opinion.
Your conclusion that poor cocaine purity levels have led to importers not wanting to take the risk for rubbish coke does not hold water either. You are quite right that presently we are seeing particularly poor purity levels in seizures in the UK, however, over time it is quite normal for purity to fluctuate – and this has never been shown to correlate with increased or decreased use of their legal alternatives.
@ Anon:
Firstly, I would say that it is not laughable that Rob Prow would try to take credit… not only is it inevitable (!), but experience also shows us that drug seizures reflect the activity of the enforcement agencies, and not the availability of drugs themselves.
Secondly, I do agree that the term ‘legal highs’ is rather broad. I apologise for diverting from Dean’s initial description “legal alternatives” which I think was far more helpful as by definition it compared like for like.
Thirdly (!) … Legal alternatives to controlled drugs have in fact been available for many years. They are not a new invention at all – I first recall these being discussed in 1994 during a meeting I was at, and they were available from ’specialist stores’ even then. They may well have been around prior to that, but I cannot personally recall an earlier mention of them.
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Truth Man, I can only back up thoughts with my own experiences. Out of my friends and acquaintances (quite a large group), no-one has been buying ecstasy or cocaine for a long period of time. People were far more content to buy legal highs because of their legality and their quality. And it’s a lot easier to buy from a local shop or on-line than arranging to meet a “shady” dealer.
I wasn’t trying to conclude that the current poor quality of cocaine was a reason for changing to importing legal highs. My point was that why bother importing any cocaine (regardless of its purity) when you can sell mephedrone without risk of a long stretch in jail?
I understand that the purity of cocaine fluctuates over time, but I think there is little point looking for a correlation with the usage of legal highs because cathinones (and their large scale usage) are fairly new to the scene and previous data would not be sufficient to provide quality analysis.
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@ Truthman / Nat…
is there something wrong with posting opinions… are we just supposed to be posting facts?
if so, i best delete all of mine as I just offer my opinion on the relevant topic…
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Aidy: Quite the opposite, and I refer you to my previous post where I say that Nat’s opinion is (in my opinion!) valid!
Nat: I do not want to take anything away from the relevance of your experience with regards to your friends drug taking habits, but I’m sure you agree that this very small sub-section of society cannot be considered to be representative? As I have said before I feel I need to see more evidence before I come to the same conclusion that you have. Also as previously stated, experience has shown that drug seizures reflect the activity of the enforcement agencies, and not the availability of drugs themselves.
And the last thing… the current popular versions of ‘legal highs’ are illegal if advertised for human consumption. Check out the packaging, they are advertised as ‘fertiliser’ or ‘bath salts’ to circumnavigate the law. Why take them at all?!
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Truth Man, I appreciate your point about sub-sections of society but Guernsey is a very small place, and the “drug takers” are quite few in number. Recreational users who traditionally took ecstasy and cocaine at the weekend are fairly easy to come accross, even if they are outside of your social group. And for the last 12 months, at “dance music events” (for want of a better description!) it is very obvious that most people who are under the influence are on mephedrone (or something similar). This is always confirmed when you are chatting to people, and let’s face it, you do a lot chatting to random people when you’re on legal highs!
But I agree that you can’t make any sweeping statements when talking about illegal drugs, because the very nature of the topic means most “facts” are actually estimates. Customs could have an excellent year making 200% increase in seizures. However they have no idea of how much contraband evades them!
As for the nature of the packaging, we all know the description of the goods is to get around the UK law. They’d probably kill your plants rather than make them grow into triffids! So the description is irrelevant.
Why take them? That’s the six million dollar question! Some people just like to get high, have a dance and have a good time!
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Nat:
All food for thought (but as you say, not food for plants, or anything you’d want to bath in!). It’s watch this space time I think, and over time hopefully we will all get a better understanding of how ‘legal’ highs are affecting our island.
In the meantime, I don’t want to take anything away from the good work done by the Customs and Immigration staff, and I congratulate them for their part in the reported success.
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Nat
I usually agree with what you say and find it interesting and well researched but I have to disagree with you strongly on the “shopkeepers selling to under 18,s” statement that you made in a previous comment.
I am very aware that the shopkeepers were constantly in close touch with customs and Drug and Alcohol Stragegy. They had a strict policy of “No ID No Sale” Also a compliation of photos from Facebook of underage people that were using or trying to purchase legal highs from local shops. This was regularly updated and passed around the shops in question. The same problem was faced by shopkeepers selling alcohol and tobacco.
Also these shops stopped selling powder in June and pills in July.
Since this time, far more powder has been brought into the island and is sold unregulated and untaxed to anyone who is able to purchase, regardless of age or suceptible mentality. Also the purity is not HLPC tested like the shops products were.
As you correctly point out, this stuff is cut with goodness knows what and at an enormously jacked up price.
There is some very nasty stuff for sale at the moment and I would seriously advise anyone not to touch it.
The ban has done nothing but encourage Fine Chems (which is the real term) to go underground and be abused in the same way that illegal drugs are.
Anyway, as they are now illegal, I am going to get pickled with alcohol and beat my children.
Unreasonable?? Yes that is the effect alcohol has on me.
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